1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for diagnosis and treatment of wounds and other skin disorders. More particularly, the invention relates to a treatment system for wounds, burns, skin diseases including tumors and the like, to enhance healing.
2. Related Art
Most open wounds are currently treated with moist or dry gauze. This results in excessive pain, dehydration of the wound, loss of fluids and proteins, loss of heat and delayed healing. In order to delay the appearance of infection, burn wounds are additionally treated with antibacterial creams and the like.
Open wounds appear to heal faster in an environment which is somewhere between moist and dry. Partial thickness wounds heal faster when covered with a polyethylene film than when exposed to air. Conventionally, dressings with some water permeability provide the optimal conditions for healing.
The concept of protecting a wound from the environment and using fluid to treat the wound is generally known. Generally, the broad concept of providing a fluid environment for wounds, burns and the like is known. For example, treating wounds by fluid treatment is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,089,492 to Owens, 3,367,332 to Groves, 4,375,812 to Vaseen and 4,382,441 to Svedman. These references also disclose various techniques to assist in treating a wound. For example, adding a wide range of medicaments to the fluid, controlling temperature, ion concentrations, diffusion and concentration gradients, and osmotic pressure.
Fluid treatment has been recognized as useful in cleansing wounds and removing foreign particles in a "stream" fluid treatment system as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,140 to McCarthy. Groves utilizes a semi-permeable membrane as part of the bandage (chamber) to allow passage of some matter out of the enclosed environment and Svedman, discussed above, indicates that the system described therein acts to remove degradation products. The system described in Svedman also acts as a transport system for supplying the tissue with nutritive substances. U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,854 to Seguin is just one example of a large number of references which disclose compositions, fluid and otherwise, for application to skin and wounds, for creating an enhanced growth or regenerative environment for tissue.
Apparatus used in connection with fluid treatment systems where wounds are enclosed in a chamber allowing the administration of antibiotics and other medications are also known in the art. For example, the apparatus disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,874 issued to Stevens comprises a chamber, a seal between the chamber and the skin, a transparent "window", and an inlet and an outlet port. Groves and Svedman disclose variations on this concept.
However, none of the systems described above have gained clinical acceptance. The prior art apparatus and methods fail to provide the capability to diagnose the condition of the wound. Further, most of the prior art systems were designed for the use of a single treatment modality or single drug treatment which greatly limits their usefulness. None of the prior art references recognize enhanced wound healing or comprehensive control over the wound healing process.